Advice required

BennyD

BennyD

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Ok guys, here's a conundrum; what engine would you have in a British 'sports car', a Rover V8 or a German straight 6? Whilst I appreciate most will say the V8, bear in mind the E-type, the MGC and most TRs have the straight 6 and the BM 3litre 6 has reliability, again, what would you suggest? Especially as the 6 has almost the same power as the 8 but has better economy, reliability and a decent sound with open pipes. Please enlighten the unenlightened! :)
 
allandwf

allandwf

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An old ancient Buick cast off from 1961 that has powered all and sundry, no thanks. LS6 maybe,?
 
conaero

conaero

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V8's....for the sound alone plus if you fit the 6, you'll always wonder if you should have fitted the V8's, where you wouldn't the other way round.
 
D

dem maser

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Good point Matt

I would have said V8 but since its not Italian id say the Germans win this one....an M straight 6 is one powerful engine and can have a good source nd and of course reliable

Italian V8 is a different story

Does it have to be a German? Cant it be an Alfa V6?
 
Wack61

Wack61

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I'd go with the V8 but it'd need some tuning if it was a stock motor, 190bhp I believe which is 2.0 diesel power these days
 
Contigo

Contigo

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The Rover V8's fitted to the TVR lumps are completely reliable and a tried and tested engine. Look at what happened when TVR made their own engines in house!!!!! :D

Saying that the BMW straight 6 fitted to the E46 M3 is an absolute peach of an engine and again bullet proof with an engine note to die for and probably nicer sounding than the older Rover V8's. If it was me I'd go for the more torquey german straight six.
 
allandwf

allandwf

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Contigo said:
The Rover V8's fitted to the TVR lumps are completely reliable and a tried and tested engine. Look at what happened when TVR made their own engines in house!!!!! :D
Click to expand...

What did happen? The V8 was a flat plane race engine, other than one batch of dodgy cranks fairly bullet proof, and a great engine. Again the straight 6, finger followers made of cheap metal, remanufactured now with 100k warranties. Usual TVR pub talk!
 
FF1078

FF1078

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Contigo said:
The Rover V8's fitted to the TVR lumps are completely reliable and a tried and tested engine. Look at what happened when TVR made their own engines in house!!!!! :D

Saying that the BMW straight 6 fitted to the E46 M3 is an absolute peach of an engine and again bullet proof with an engine note to die for and probably nicer sounding than the older Rover V8's. If it was me I'd go for the more torquey german straight six.
Click to expand...

Not sure what TVR used but the old 3.5 in Land Rovers was a load of cr4p.
Camshafts snapped, hydraulic tappets where terrible. crankshafts snapped, con rods out of blocks the list goes on.
 
Trev Latter

Trev Latter

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I think it depends on how the car is going to be driven.

The Rover V8 is very dated now and completely outclassed by many other manufacturers efforts (4.8 BMW V8 and Lexus spring to mind in particular), but is a great engine if left in a fairly soft state of tune and wanted for lazy torque for bimbling around making nice burbling noises. The last 3.5 Rover I had in a Rangie was still ok after 250k miles and still on its original camshaft, which is almost unheard of for that engine. It had been subject to religious oil changes every 3k miles though, which must have helped. That said, Ive also had a few Rover V8s that have suffered cam and crank failures, porous blocks on the 4.6 and a variety of smaller niggles. The 4.0 I had in my old P38 was pretty good though.

For something with a bit (lot) more top end rush, the BMW 6 will take a fair bit of beating and will sound more like a "traditional" 50s/60s British sports car and that would most likely be the one I went for.
 
FIFTY

FIFTY

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BMW in-line 6 engine for sure, sweet sounding balanced, reliable, easy to work on yourself, good power etc.

Only downside is that the high power versions 3.0l+ are not very tunable without going down the turbo route because bmw have squeezed most of the power out already.

As others have said I'd go for the S54 in the E46 M3/Z4M
 
BennyD

BennyD

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I have to think that a German straight 6 may be the way forward. However, I've never really conformed to rational thinking (hence my darling wife) so I'll be having a think over what comes next!!!!!
 
BennyD

BennyD

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No mate, it's a fairly rare, British built, metal sports car with a highly strung engine and sh!t gear ratios. 20 mph/1000rpm is f*cking hard work when you are trying to average 120-140!
 
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